Snap engaging hook and eye fastener



Oct. 27, 1970` ".J. B. KRUGER ETAL 3,535,753

SNAP ENGAGING HOOK AND EYE FASTENER Filed Jan. 29, 1969 o o o o o o o .oo o o Oooooooo INVENTORS James B.Krm er BY Gerar 'ILePage "d I AT ORNE'Y3,535,753 SNAP ENGAGING HOOK AND EYE FASTENER James B. Kruger, NewHaven, and Gerard Thomas Lelage, Waterbury, Conn., assignors to ScovillManufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of ConnecticutFiled Jan. 29, 1969, Ser. No. 794,893 Int. Cl. A44b 19/24 U.S. Cl.24-226 7 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A hook and eye fastenerintended primarily for articles of clothing has a hook plate and an eyeplate each capable of being made from sheet material by simple shearingand forming operations. The eye plate has an opening and one or moreoutwardly shaped bridges across the opening. The hook plate has anopening which receives a bridge, with the hook projecting under thebridge, and a lip to snap against the bridge when the hook is fullyinserted.

This invention relates to hook and eye fasteners which may be useful onvarious articles of clothing and in one embodiment it is especiallyadvantageous in uniting lightweight straps such as in brassieres.

The fiat plates may be secured to the ends of the straps or the like bylheat sealing, stitching or other suitable means. They are easily unitedby an endwise movement with a nal snap action to provide a fastenerwhich is strong in tension and at the same time capable of being easilydisengaged by a slight tilting and endwise movement. The overallthickness of the fastener when the plates are united, need be little ifany greater than the combined thickness of the two pieces or sheets offlat material from which the hook and eye plates are made. The bridge ofthe eye plate is accommodated in the opening of the hook plate and thehook is similarly accommodated in the opening of the eye plate with theresult that the fastener is comparatively smooth on both the inner andouter faces.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in thecourse of the following description.

In the accompanying drawings, I have shown for purposes of illustrationtwo embodiments which the invention may assume in practice. In thesedrawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an eye plate;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a hook plate;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are longitudinally extending sectional views through theeye plate and hook plate respectively;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are plan and central longitudinal sectional viewsrespectively of the two plates fastened together;

FIG. 7 illustrates in longitudinal section the action of the hook andeye plates when being united or separated;

FIG. 8 and 9 are plan views of a modied form of fastener showing the eyeand hook plates respectively; and

FIGS. l0 and 11 are plan and central longitudinal sectional viewsrespectively of the modified form of the fastener.

The eye plate shown in FIGS l and 3 is basically a flat piece 12 whichcan be stamped out of sheet material and the entire fastener is intendedto be manufactured from a suitable plastic material. The hook plate isalso a generally flat piece of sheet material 13. The invention is notparticularly concerned with the manner in which the hook and eye platesmay be attached to straps or other parts of a garment. In FIGS. 1 and 2,there is .United States Patent O indicated a strap receiving aperture 14for the eye plate and a similar aperture 15 for the hook plate.

The engaging end of the eye plate has an opening 16 which may be ofrectangular .shape or the inner end portion 17 of the opening may beangular as seen in FIG. l. A transversely extending portion of the sheetmaterial is shaped outwardly of the plate 12 to make a bridge 18extending transversely across the opening 16.

The hook plate at its engaging end has an opening 19 which is at leastlarge enough to receive the bridge 18 of the eye plate. A hook 20projects from the front transversely extending edge 21 of the opening 19and is shaped to extend outwardly from the plane of the hook plate 13and at least partially across the hook plate opening 19. The free end orlead portion of the hook 20 is spaced slightly from the flat plate 13 sothat the hook may be inserted endwise under the bridge 18 of the eyeplate. At the base of the hook there may be a shoulder 22 and when thehook is fully inserted as seen in FIGS. 5 and 6, the hook receiving edge23 of the bridge 18 will come to rest against the shoulder 22.

In order to unite the parts, it is necessary only to put the hook andeye plates in overlapping relation with one being angled slightlyrelative to the other, and move the hook plate endwise so that the hook20 slips under the bridge 18. When the bridge comes against the stopshoulder 22, the hook plate is drawn downwardly by the resilience of thehook as seen in FIG. 7 so that the edge along that side of the hookplate opening opposite the hook may snap against the adjacenttransversely extending edge 23a of the bridge 18. The opening -19 ispreferably shaped so as to provide a lip portion 24 somewhat narrowerthan the opening 19 so that it will be more readily snap over the bridgeon the eye plate.

When the parts are thus engaged, they will be held snugly together sothat the normal looseness in hook and eye fasteners is avoided.Furthermore, it will be observed that the bridge 18 ts nicely in theopening of the hook plate and the hook 20 does not project appreciablybelow the lower surface of the eye plate when the two parts are united.The entire fastener will, therefore, have an overall thickness notsubstantially greater than the combined thickness of the two flat plates12 and 13.

The modication shown in FIGS. 8 to 1l inclusive, il-

lustrates various differences in construction embodying, however, thesame basic principles as the fastener already described. The eye plate25 is rectangular and has holes 26 around its border and central holes27 by which it may be sewn to a garment. There are two rather longopenings 28 and 29 extending lengthwise of the plate 25 and three pairsof bridges 30, 31 and 32 extending across these openings. The hook plate33 may also have sewing holes 34 for attaching it to a garment, and apair of hooks 35 and 36 which may be engaged selectively with any one ofthe pairs of bridges on the eye plate 25. Another variation is theprovision of slots 37 at either side of each hook to increase theflexibility. It will also be observed that instead of a shoulder likethat indicated at 22 in FIG. 4, the plate edge portions 38 on each sideof the base of the hook will cooperate with the inner transverse edgesof the bridge portions of the eye plate to serve as a stop as best seenin FIG. 10. The hook plate openings 39 and 40 also may be varied inshape by providing the curved edges 41 and 42 to make a llexible portionfor snapping over the outer transverse edges of the bridges 30, 31 or32. The operation of the modified form of fastener is substantially thesame as that which has already been described with reference to FIGS. 1to 7. In addition, of course, the feature of adjustability is providedsince the hooks 35 and 36 may be engaged with any one of a plurality ofpairs of bridges on the eye plate.

We claim:

1. A snap engaging hook and eye fastener comprising an eye plate and ahook plate adapted to be united in overlapping relation, each platebeing formed from resilient sheet material, said eye plate having anopening, a. transversely extending portion shaped outwardly of the eyeplate to make a bridge across said opening, the bridge having an entrantedge, said hook plate having an opening adapted to receive said bridge,a hook projecting from one transversely extending edge of said hookplate opening, outwardly from the plane of said hook plate and at leastpartially across said hook plate opening, the lead portion of the hookbeing spaced from the hook plate a sufficient distance so that it may beinserted endwise under the entrant edge of the bridge, and cooperatingmeans on said hook plate and bridge to limit such endwise insertion ofthe hook to a position where the edge along that side of the hook plateopening opposite the hook, may snap over the edge of said bridgeopposite said entrant edge.

2. A fastener as defined in claim 1 wherein the eye plate openingextends a substantial distance in front of the entrant edge of thebridge to facilitate insertion and removal of the hook.

3. A fastener as defined in claim 1 wherein said bridge is shapedoutwardly from the eye plate only enough so that it will lieapproximately in the plane of said hook plate when the two plates areunited.

4. A fastener as defined in claim 1 further characterized by a lip alongthat edge of the opening in said hook plate which is opposite to thehook, said lip being adapted to snap into edge-to-edge contact with saidbridge to hold said hook tightly against said bridge to minimizelooseness when the plates are united.

5. A fastener as defined in claim 1 wherein the means to limit insertionof the hook comprises a shoulder at the base of the hook adapted to abutthe entrant edge of the bridge.

6. A fastener as defined in claim 1 wherein said means to limit endwiseinsertion of the hook consists of plate edge portions on opposite sidesof the hook, which edge portions abut the entrant edge of the bridgewhen the hook is fully inserted.

7. A fastener as defined in claim 1 lwherein the hook and eye plates areadapted to be made from plastic material in sheet form, the fastenerwhen the parts are united having an overall thickness not substantiallygreater than the `combined thickness of the two sheets from Iwhich theplates are formed.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 509,709 11/1893 Wiesenfeld 24-226632,911 9/1899 Berry 24-226 725,997 4/ 1903 Singer 24-226 991,287 5/1911Feingold 24-226 2,016,733 10/1935 Wener 24-226 FOREIGN PATENTS 9,427 1/1934 Australia. 136,865 12/ 1902 Germany. 380,630 12/1907 France.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Primary Examiner W. H. SCHROEDER, AssistantExaminer

